2014
December
NEWS
December at St. James Episcopal School is always refreshing and spiritually enriching because of the children. The classrooms are alive with seasonal works such as the Nativity Scene, ornament making, painting with red and green, etc. One look under the trees at the mountains of collected toys, and you realize these children truly understand that Christmas is about giving rather than always receiving! There’s also the sound of sweet Christmas songs being rehearsed for the program…the spirit of Christmas is definitely in our classrooms and most importantly- our hearts!
The School and the Church are actually in the process of creating a little Christmas gift as well…we’ve joined forces in order to have the hallway bathrooms remodeled over the Christmas holidays! Be sure to take one last look at the old bathrooms sometime this week in order to fully appreciate this present! I hope you all have the kind of Christmas that creates treasured memories that your children will share with their own children one day. Love and Blessings, Mrs. Loree
Dear Families: Winter is nearly here, as we watch the final leaves drop from the trees. We hope you enjoyed the Thanksgiving break and that everyone was able to spend some quality time with their families. A big thanks to all of you for making both of our Thanksgiving Feasts a success and a special thanks to our awesome parent volunteers who helped to set up and clean up! MDO children continue to work on refining their skills, including completing a work cycle. There are many steps involved with completing a work cycle including pushing in a chair, cleaning up spills, rolling up rugs, returning the work to its proper place, etc. Our students are learning many great skills that will continue to develop into the New Year! Also, we are teaching the children how to blow their own nose and wash their hands. Please help us by reinforcing these lessons at home. After all, practice makes perfect! In the classroom, some of our grace and courtesy lessons are that of teaching the children to apologize after making a “sad choice,” and how to say “please” and “thank you” when they feel appreciation for something or someone. This practice allows the children to focus on the good. These lessons help them cultivate an attitude of gratitude from an early age. We have begun our celebration of winter holidays with new works on the shelves that reflect some of various symbols of the season. We have learned about the Nativity from a special book. Children love to arrange the Nativity figures in a manger. So far at Spanish circle, we have introduced a special song “Feliz Navidad.” We hope you are hearing this song at home. We wish you a happy and healthy winter break! Mrs. Eva, Mrs. Bianca and Ms. Mary
MONTESSORI ACTIVITIES IN THE MDO CLASSROOM: Sequence work, rolling up rugs, preparing the snack, returning the work to the shelf.
SEASONAL WORKS: Decorating a Christmas tree with play dough, matching mittens by color, Nativity arrangement.
Mother’s Day Out
The Christmas spirit is overflowing in the T1 classroom. New Christmas works out on the shelves to help us learn to sort, count, transfer, paint, glue and use our imagination. To get us in the Christmas spirit, the Baby Jesus felt board story has been fun making the story come alive. We also have a movable wooden navity manger that helps recreate the story using others senses - feeling the wood and storytelling on their own. The classroom has also been experimenting with different smells, and the smelling matching work has been a big hit with cinnamon, nutmeg and evergreen. Even making pancakes with cinnamon, yummy! We have also been very busy practicing our Christmas program songs and making sure we sing loud enough for family to hear. We shall see! Merry Christmas to all our T1 families. In His Love, Mrs. Anna and Ms. Annabel
Toddler 1
Can you believe it’s almost January? The year has just flown by. The colder weather is just beginning! Please remember jackets and hats daily. The children do go outside daily - appropriate outerwear is so important. Several children still need an extra change of warmer clothes in their cubby. Please be sure to bring some in, if your not sure just ask one if us. In January we go diaper free for the children who are not potty trained yet. They will be in underwear during the morning work cycle to start. Please bring in lots of extra underwear and clothes. We love to do cooking projects and having the kids help prepare snack. Here is Davis spreading guacamole on pita bread shaped like tree, next he adds chopped bell peppers.
Sofia is focusing on placing an ornament on the Christmas tree.
Michelle is trying to use the tongs and transfer the bows from one bowl to another.
We had a few rainy days this month, but that doesn’t stop us from having fun. Vivienne is jumping on our new mini trampoline for our gross motor area in class.
Cora and Bodhi are building with the Imagination Blocks in the Parish Hall. I love how they were working together to build their castle.
Mrs. Loree bought gardening to us on a day too cold to be outside. She showed the class plants they might see around during Christmas season. The kids also got to string popcorn and cranberries for the birds outside. What fun!
We have had so much fun with your little ones and can’t wait to see what 2015 has in store for us. We want to wish each and every one of you a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year! See you in 2015 Mrs. April, Mrs. Lily and Ms. Eliane
Toddler 2
Christmas lights and jingle bells, ornaments, and pageant songs! All these things describe one thing in Toddler 3 right now: Christmas is coming! The children were so excited to walk in and see the Christmas tree in our classroom; they were even more excited to string ornaments to put on it! Decorating the tree has been a very popular work this year! It is starting to get very cold and rainy, sometimes even below freezing! On these days we go to the Parish Hall to play with the “Imagination Playground.” The children love this activity because they are able to move and connect life size blocks (they can even walk on them,) and create amazing houses, forts, tracks for rolling balls, and more! It is a nice alternative when the weather is not being so nice :) Taking turns, sharing, and working together has become quite the focus in the Toddler 3 room. Normally, we encourage the children to choose their own work, but sometimes it is nice to have a friend’s help while working. Once the children become aware that they are sharing they start to help each other make connections they were not able to make while working independently. Some works that have become “sharing” works are: building train tracks, block building, reading a story (they like to read to one another,) and the flannel board. The children have also taken it upon themselves to share the sink in the bathroom to wash hands together (pumping soap can be challenging at this age.) You also will find the children helping each other throughout the day: putting on shoes, cleaning up work, finding one another’s jacket or water bottle. The children are enhancing their grace and courtesy skills by the practice of sharing and helping one another. Although the Montessori philosophy is independently structured, compassion for each other’s work and being kind to one another is important when “growing a child.” Have a safe Holiday! Merry Christmas! Ms. Coral, Jaymie, Amy, and Hanna
Toddler 3
Hays and Hunter build a train track together so they can collaboratively “choo choo� along.
Virginia concentrating on stringing an ornament for the Christmas tree.
Ryan and Eva walk on the imagination playground they built!
Friends share a story around the classroom Christmas tree!
Aidan and Virginia working hard on holiday sticker works.
s a m t s i r
h C y r r Me and ! r a e Y w e N y p p Ha Wishing you and your family a joyful and blessed holiday.
White Rock Center of Hope Final Collection
Thank you for your generosity!
Dear families of Primary One, It’s the most wonderful time of the year! The children have been learning about the true meaning of Christmas this holiday season. We have learned about advent and made a chain to count down the days until Christmas break. It has been so much fun having “choir” with Ms. Maria to rehearse for our annual pageant! The children have learned all the words and signs and can’t wait to demonstrate their musical talents on pageant night. In the classroom we made ornaments to adorn our small tree, traced snowflakes and snowmen, made Christmas wrapping paper collages and learned Christmas poems. They have cut out angels and stitched holly leaves. The children are also really enthusiastic about language right now! The kindergarten children are reading every day and writing their own illustrated stories about Christmas. Second years practice handwriting in the sand tray and write words and simple sentences with the large moveable alphabet. First year children love tracing the metal insets and sewing up books to showcase their work. We have read The Nutcracker, The Polar Express, and What Snowmen do at Night. They were all instant favorites. For some holiday reading with older children I recommend The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, and The Magic Treehouse Christmas in Camelot. Have a wonderful, restful holiday!! Sending lots of good cheer, Ms. Charlotte and Ms. Kim
Primary 1
Primary 2
We have had a flurry of Christmas activities and works, along with all of the regular Montessori works in our classroom. With the addition of the Christmas works we have been very busy. And we have had fun busily preparing for Christmas. Stringing beads on pipe cleaners is a tradition in our classroom. The students string beads on pipe cleaners and hang them on our classroom tree. The older children start independently “patterning” the beads on the pipe cleaners. Their minds are very busy deciding which pattern and colors they want, then finding them in the bead basket. Our tree looks beautiful! The students take the “ornaments” home when we leave school for the holidays. Additionally we have Christmas “pin pricking” works, coloring works, lacing works, and a wonderful stash of items in our Art Cache to help with Christmas Art creations. Practicing the songs for The Christmas Program is always a favorite of ours. Listening to the students sing and learn the songs is just priceless. For me, personally, Christmas is a wonderful time filed with memories; one that surfaced today is one of my favorite little books, Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus. If you’ve not read it lately, I highly recommend it. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Enjoy this blessed season with your children, families, and friends. May we always remember to count our many, many blessings! Much love. All the best, Mrs. Barrineau Ms. Marla
The holiday spirit is in full swing in our classroom! We have been reading about the birth of Jesus and the children have practiced the story with a beautiful nativity set from Mexico. They have been stringing beads to make their own Christmas ornaments, sorting and tonging Christmas mementos in the practical life works, and humming Christmas carols all the while. The older children have taken a Christmas theme for this month’s story writing projects and it has been fun to discover their thoughts on Christmas! Our continent study for the month of December has been Antarctica. The children were fascinated to learn about the animal species that live on and around Antarctica but were shocked to know that no people live there permanently. We have discussed camouflage and its important role to keep arctic animals safe from predators. We have also highlighted the emperor penguin and discussed its lifecycle. Ask your child how the male emperor penguin incubates the egg and how old the chicks are when they begin to find their own food‌ This month our birthdays were Alexander Chekanovskiy, who turned five, and Jackson Anderson, who turned four. We want to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas! May you make wonderful memories and cherish each other this holiday season. Ms. Tamara and Ms. Monica
Emory and Riley made a Christmas tree with the sensorial materials
Levi wrote a story about Santa MJ hanging an edible garland
Canyon creating an edible garland for the birds
Primary 3 Ellie completed the Global View of Numbers
Primary 4
The holiday season is here! What an exciting time! Each child in our class had a hand in decorating the classroom for Christmas. Everyone strung beads to make beautiful ornaments for our Christmas tree. Many children also strung popcorn and cranberries. We even have a red and green paper chain hanging across the room. Our class enjoyed reading Christmas in the Big Woods and Happy Birthday Jesus. Second level and kindergarten students have been counting the days until Christmas using their Christmas tree calendar. Each day, they get to color in the date to see how many more days are left until Christmas. They also discovered that their calendars can be used to see what day the Christmas Pageant is. They are very excited to sing for all of you! A few favorite seasonal works this month include our nativity scene, scooping jingle bells, Santa writing, and the moveable alphabet Christmas box. We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas! Ms. Elizabeth and Mrs. Ashley
Congratulations to Mrs. Anna’s Toddler
LEGO tube racing
o our Annual Fund LEGO Party winners! Class and Mrs. Barrineau’s Primary Class
LEGO bingo with Miss Brianna (SJES alumna and daughter of Anna Bouldin)
Merry Christmas! We have had a busy month making ornaments in art class! The kindergarteners made salt dough ornaments, then cut them out with holiday cookie cutters. We baked them in the oven, then painted them. I’m sure these little masterpieces will hang on your tree for many years!
The kindergarteners also made candy canes and snowflakes out of pipe cleaners and beads. This was definitely a favorite activity!
Art/Tech
The second year students made glass ball ornaments. They were able to choose what they wanted to fill their ornament with. They could choose paint, glitter, or sprinkles! The ornaments turned out so beautifully, I know they will love to hang them on the tree.
The second years also made Christmas tree ornaments! They added a star, a trunk, and sequins to their trees. It’s a classic ornament to enjoy on your tree!
In technology we finished our special project - a calendar! The children worked so hard on their drawings, and I am so proud of them. I compiled all the pictures they drew, and turned it into a calendar. Each kindergarten student will receive a calendar to take home. I hope you enjoy it all year long!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Ms. Hanna
It is hard to believe that it is already December, the year has flown by. I have enjoyed getting to know your children this year. They make me laugh at the end of the school day. Please remember to check the baskets at the end of the day for your child’s jacket. The large navy blue baskets that are for Ms. Charlotte and Mrs. Barrineau’s classroom seem to have a lot of leftover jackets. I believe that some children might be putting jackets in the basket and are not in one of these classrooms. Please feel free to look in if you are missing a jacket. Speaking of winter gear, please make sure you label your child’s jacket and if the jacket had a previous owner, please write your child’s name in the garment as well. We always like to go outside in ASC and sometimes this can be the coolest part of the day because the sun is starting to set. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call me. Lisa Wilson
ASC
Garden
December in the Children’s
This month we’ve been adding wheat straw to the beds to insulate the fall crops. We have several varieties of kale and bok choy, carrots, spinach, brussel sprouts, and red cabbage growing in our garden. We also added punches of color by planting violas here and there. Did you know violas are edible? We mostly see the candied version of pansies and violas but they can also be tasty additions to salads!
Sometimes the weather doesn’t cooperate with our gardening plans. This month’s backup plan was stringing cranberries and popcorn for our Children’s Garden Christmas tree!
If you happen to do a lot of baking over the holidays, please save your rinsed egg shells for me. The children absolutely love to crush them with the mortar and pestle! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Mrs. Loree
We are welcoming winter with open arms and great anticipation for Christmas! Christmas is “Coming!” Advent itself! All of the children have loved the stories that are told during Advent in Chapel. We’ve learned about the Advent Wreath, The Nativity Story and even about a few guys in a meadow watching sheep that were called upon to worship the Baby Jesus! Chapel lessons are a unique setting where all the glamour of the holidays slowly fades away and the children are solely focused on the birth of Emmanuel. This name literally translates to: God with us. He is with us! “Mary will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”--which means, “God with us.” Matthew 1:23 I know many of the teachers here at St. James have been giving lessons in the classroom using the beautiful Christmas materials such as the Nativity. All of the children love to reenact the story using these materials. What great fun! God is with us. Our hope lies in Him. During this Christmas season remember that God will send His light and love to us all. “The people living in darkness have seen a great light” Matthew 4:16 A huge thank you to everyone who donated toys under the Christmas tree this year! And thank you to all those who donated winter coats. May your Christmas be filled with love, light, hope, peace, and goodness. We send you all of our love and we look forward to seeing everyone in the new year. Blessings, Ashley Woodruff Christian Education Director
Chapel